For the past 19 years, I have spent my summers on the baseball diamond umpiring. I have umpired everything from little league to college. I have attended the Harry Wendelstedt umpire school twice. This blog will be a combination of stories and lessons I have learned along the way.

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Code of Conduct for Umpires

In my last post, I recieved the following comment:

"just had an umpire yell at a 14 yr old kid, 2 inches from his face like he was going to beat him up because he drew a line with the bat to connect part of the batters box that was scrubbed away. is there a conduct rule for umpires in Little League?"

Here is my response:

I believe that in little league and in all levels of baseball there is a definite code of conduct for umpires. Umpires need to be professional at all times. Sure there is a time to yell and show that you are in control of the field but even then, you do it respectively and stay in control. When I get into an argument with a coach, no matter what he says to me, I still call him sir. If a kid gets on me, I might go talk to coach or say something to the kid but I stay in control. I don’t lose my cool. As an umpire, you are a representative of your league, your complex and every umpire that works with you.

Getting in a 14 year olds face is not acceptable. There is nothing that a kid could do that would make me do something like that. The way I look at it, if the offense warrants getting in the kids face, then he should be thrown out of the game anyways so I would just do that. I have two ways of handling a situation with a player. The first is that I pull the kids aside and calmly talk to him and explain that I’m not going to put up with it. Or I talk to the coach and let him deal with it. The only time I might really raise my voice at a player is if he argues balls and strikes but even then, it’s something simple like knock it off or that’s enough. I never get in a players face. Actually, I think in my 22 years, I have only been in three arguments at the little league level where I was in someone’s face and in each situation, the coach was the one getting in my face.